It’s uncharacteristically warm in San Francisco today, so I think I – more so than just about anyone in the world – am best equipped to identify with giant robots. Specifically, MechWarrior Online‘s menagerie of metallic monoliths who’ve taken to duking it out on the newly revealed Caustic Valley map. It is, in case you hadn’t guessed, very, very warm. Mechs, meanwhile, tend to naturally become hot enough to spontaneously combust an egg on top of by way of, well, existing, so Caustic Valley requires extremely careful piloting. Otherwise, you’ll get all sweaty and nasty and gross and dead.

This sounds wonderful, I think. Every time I hear something new about MechWarrior, it seems more and more primed to fill the mech-sim-shaped hole in my heart, and maps with unique, battle-affecting properties only seal the deal. Heat management, cooler weapons versus their less heat-efficient counterparts, and even the general uselessness of thermal vision in a place built atop a volcano have all been taken into account, so you won’t just be going through the same old mechanized motions with an extra layer of molten window dressing.

Here’s hoping more maps give unique geographical properties a chance to shine. As is, we’ve at least got a snow level on the way as well, though there’s still no word on what sort of effects it’ll have on hulking hunks of death metal. Maybe it’ll give them a chance to model fashionable winter wear – the finest in stories-tall parkas and Snuggies. This is the gaming industry, though, so I imagine we’ll have to purchase them with… mechrotransactions. Welp, I’m done now. Like, with life, I think.

A Volcano doesn’t just go around visiting places. IF a volcano would have ‘come’ to that complex the massive energies that form planets over thousand of years would have made that tiny little complex into a molten sea of metal. Just saying. :P

Well, we aren’t doing it because it’s too difficult and dangerous to harness the energies of a volcano directly. Today we are using underground cracks in volcanic active areas to pump water down and get hot steam back…

Let me ask a similar question:

Why are we doing more and more dangerous operations to get resources, regardless of the advancing destruction of our planet that comes from that (?)

They said in the dev intro video for the snow map that visibility would be greatly reduced, making thermal vision powerful for detecting enemies running hot as well as greatly reduce the range at which you can lock on to targets without a spotter.
The cold weather would also allow for more repeated use of energy weapons because cold.

I find it strange that these mech games are about mechs fighting other mechs, if someone built a machine it’d have a purpose like how the Warthog A-10 is designed for bombing ground targets. It’d be cool if these multiplayer matches were about objectives rather than deathmatch so you had to suit the right mech for the job.

Am I talking shit? Am I thinking about this too much? Should I get back to work?

The old Mechwarrior games had this in their singleplayer campaigns. You could encounter some lighter units like hovertanks or stationary defence turrets. But even in singleplayer, other mechs were your main enemy. In multiplayer pvp there was always only mech vs mech. I, too, would like some form of objective based pvp or coop elements with some other units thrown into the mix.

Iron Soldier on the Jag did this well, there were few encounter with other mechs in the SP campaign, it was mostly helicopters, tanks, missile sites etc. Iron Solider also had properly big mechs, unlike MW. We need a modern reimagining of that game.

They have said they want people to use different style mechs. So a team might have a couple light mechs scouting for some long range missile mechs that are being protected by some low-mid range assault mechs. Or being online random team death match everyone is going to be running around by themselves in Atlases, well see i guess.

Ah, but how many tank games are based around attacking other tanks? Yes, you ideally need proper infantry and air support, but it’s still become a truism that you generally want a tank to kill another tank.

yeah and that level where you made your way through an ice and snow covered landscape, which made heat management very easy, and then suddenly had to fight in that complex inside the volcano where things were very hot.

For your info, there already is a snow map called Frozen City; it was announced a while ago. It pretty much has the opposite effects on the battle that Caustic Valley does; namely, you can go pew pew all you want without having to worry as much about overheating. The third map revealed so far is a forest area, where standing in water will cool you down faster, but it seems like you are a lot more exposed. This is shaping up to be a very tactical MW game.

From what I’ve read, the environment (trees) aren’t dynamic yet, but they will be when the game is released. This is all beta footage still. This is a game I’m really looking forward to.

Can’t wait for this to be released. Other than some minor graphical nitpicking, the videos look fantastic. I probably sunk more hours into MW2, MW3, MW4, their expansions, and the MechCommander games than any other genre. Plus the fact that their going with the 3049 timeline means a great variety with a TON of stuff coming in the next 2 years. Bring on the Clans so I can kick all their whiny little asses back to the Kerensky Cluster!